Hugh SchofieldParis correspondent, and
Aleks Phillips
The captain of an oil tanker believed to be part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of vessels used to evade sanctions has been charged by French authorities.
The Chinese national was handed one count of refusing to follow instructions from the French navy and told to attend a court hearing in the northern coastal city of Brest next February.
The Boracay left Russia last month and was off the coast of Denmark when unidentified drones forced the temporary closure of several airports last week.
The tanker was earlier boarded by French soldiers because it was on a list of vessels subject to EU sanctions for carrying Russian oil exports. Russian President Vladimir Putin called France’s actions “piracy”.
The Kremlin had previously denied any knowledge of the vessel.
The Boracay is currently registered in Benin, but has changed name and flag several times in recent years as part of alleged efforts to evade sanctions brought in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The French prosecutor’s office said the captain was unable to give a coherent answer about the flag the ship was carrying.
He and the second captain, also a Chinese national, had been detained since Tuesday while French authorities investigated them on suspicion of two offences: refusing to comply with naval orders and failing to justify the nationality of the ship’s flag.
The second captain was released without charge after being questioned.
The Boracay is now anchored near the port of Saint-Nazaire, down the coast from Brest.
Under international maritime law, naval forces can stop a merchant vessel at sea if they have reasonable suspicion that the vessel is without a nationality.
Many Western countries have imposed sanctions on Russian energy by limiting imports and capping the price of its oil in response to the war in Ukraine.
To evade these sanctions, Moscow has built up what has been referred to as a “shadow fleet” of tankers whose ownership and movements could be obscured.
Russia is believed to have a fleet of several hundred tankers that are registered in other countries and are used to export its petrol. French President Emmanuel Macron has said Russia’s shadow fleet contained between 600 and 1,000 ships.
The Boracay was detained by Estonian authorities earlier this year for sailing without a valid country flag.
It had set off from the Russian port of Primorsk outside Saint Petersburg on 20 September and sailed through the Baltic Sea and past Denmark, before entering the North Sea and carrying on through the English Channel.
It had been scheduled to arrive in Vadinar in north-western India on 20 October, according to data from the Marine Traffic tracking website.
The separate question of whether the tanker was used to launch last week’s drone incursion into Danish airspace remains unresolved.
Macron refused to be drawn on the issue while attending a summit on EU security in Copenhagen on Wednesday.
That summit came in direct response to events in Denmark, as well as incursions into several other European nations in recent weeks.
The drones over Denmark appeared over several of its airports and military bases, though Danish authorities have said there was no evidence to suggest Russian involvement.
Poland, Estonia and Romania have reported having their airspace violated by either drones or Russian fighter jets. Moscow denied violating Estonian airspace and said the other incursions were accidental.
